€150 billion for AI-related opportunities in Europe

The initiative will be unveiled at the Élysée as part of the AI Action Summit in Paris, hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, and will be discussed with the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the Heads of State and Government of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Sweden.

This is the first time that European leaders from across countries, industry, technology, and policy unite to create a functional flywheel to accelerate Europe's leadership in AI – by framing a positive, ambitious vision for Europe, mobilising talent and capital and thereby accelerating AI adoption across the European industry. All participating companies are united by the conviction that presenting a cohesive market opportunity to the entrepreneurial ecosystem will create self-reinforcing mechanisms of building new technology companies and enhancing global leadership positions of Europe’s established industries, together driving economic growth and social prosperity in Europe.

In order to fully enable the creation and adoption of AI in Europe, the initiative also seeks to engage collaboratively and constructively with the European Commission and member state governments to create a drastically simplified AI regulatory framework that unlocks local innovation and global leadership, supporting existing efforts to launch a comprehensive AI Strategy for Europe. The first discussion on necessary action items with a select group of CEOs and the above-mentioned politicians will take place immediately following the unveiling of the initiative as part of the AI Action Summit in Paris. The following day, technology executives from participating companies will convene to begin strategising on accelerating AI adoption and fostering a local ecosystem of AI infrastructure, aimed at enhancing value capture across the continent.

“By seizing this moment, working with greater intention, and embracing deep collaboration, Europe can seize a generational opportunity by leading in applied AI, integrating it into our industrial base to boost productivity, resilience, and economic sovereignty, especially in key sectors like manufacturing, energy, healthcare and defence,” said Jeannette zu Fürstenberg, Managing Director and Head of Europe at General Catalyst, who has been entrusted with coordinating the groundwork for the EU AI Champions Initiative to establish the foundational elements needed for a productive dialogue at the AI Action Summit and beyond. “Europe has all the essentials for a resilient and competitive AI infrastructure: talent, capital, and a strong industrial backbone with proprietary distribution and data. With the commitment of over 60 leading European companies, we must harness these resources to unlock a functional flywheel between technology, capital, and policy,” she added.

Christophe Fouquet, President & CEO, ASML, commented: “At ASML, we believe that cutting-edge AI, combined with Europe’s world-class innovation ecosystem, will drive the next era of technological progress. The EU AI Champions Initiative represents an important step in uniting industry leaders to ensure Europe remains at the forefront of AI-driven advancements. By fostering collaboration between technology, industry, and policymakers, we can unlock unprecedented opportunities for economic growth, competitiveness, and global leadership.”

International investors earmarked €150 billion for AI in Europe

When Europe succeeds in creating a transparent and targeted, competition-driven AI framework with viable investment opportunities, more than 20 international key capital a locators, including Balderton, Blackstone, CVC, DST Global, EQT, General Catalyst, Insight, KKR, Lightspeed, and Warburg Pincus, stand ready to spend €150 billion new capital and previously raised funds for AI-related opportunities in Europe over the next five years. These investments span a wide range of sectors, including AI technology companies, businesses applying AI to enhance their operations, and the critical infrastructure that supports AI, such as energy and data centres. The capital highlights the immense potential for AI transformation in the region and will attract even more talent and capital, accelerating AI adoption across European industries.

A report on how to re-write the playbook

As part of its commitment, General Catalyst published the report ‘An Ambitious Agenda for European AI’. This report features the power of collaboration with manifold European case studies, outlines recommendations for a comprehensive European AI strategy, consolidating insights from industry leaders, and providing actionable recommendations for policymakers and businesses.

While the adoption of Generative AI could boost Europe’s annual productivity by up to 3% by 2030, the report reveals actionable insights with several ‘lighthouse examples’ showcasing AI’s transformative power:

• Novo Nordisk scientists enhance therapeutic discovery, while minimising experimental rounds, using Cradle's AI-based and user-friendly software that easily scales organisation wide. This partnership accelerates innovation by reducing discovery and development timelines while improving the safety and efficacy of therapeutics for patients
• Loft Orbital and Helsing are redefining defence intelligence by creating an AI-powered multi-sensor ISR constellation, delivering a 10x increase in the speed of military operations by 2026. Ten initial LEO satellites from Loft, equipped with diverse cameras and RF sensors, will leverage Helsing's on-orbit AI processing for real-time identification and classification of global military assets, complementing sovereign assets. With high reactivity, short revisit periods, and low latency, the system will enable tactical use of space assets
• SAP and Mistral AI are reinventing enterprise software together to power Europe’s future human-agentic workforce. By integrating Mistral AI’s models in SAP’s trusted and secure environment, global enterprises can work safely with their proprietary data to codify their industry-specific processes into frontier models. This not only enhances the functionality of core SAP applications, but also critically amplifies their customer’s competitive advantage by scaling their market-leading domain expertise

These examples show that the secret sauce for Europe lies in collaboration on all levels: within industries, greater data sharing and joint innovation frameworks are essential to unlocking growth, while cross-industry partnerships can unlock necessary AI infrastructure investments and generate groundbreaking solutions that transcend traditional boundaries. Equally vital is fostering synergies between incumbents with scale and resources and startups bringing agility and cutting-edge innovation.

Call to action for a targeted, competition-driven AI framework

Europe must stimulate the synergy between technology, capital, and policy by establishing a targeted, competition-driven AI framework. Findings from over 60 interviews with the private sector show there is an urgent need to simplify regulations to support growth while mitigating potential risks. Instead of introducing new regulatory layers, the emphasis should be on harmonisation, legal clarity, and eliminating internal barriers that impede AI scaling. The report outlines six concrete policy recommendations:

• Unified approach to regulatory clarity and compliance: streamlining and simplifying more than 100 tech-focused laws across the EU must be key
• Data harmonisation and secure data sharing: establish a secure, innovation-friendly data environment with harmonised governance and compliance rules to enable effective data sharing and collaboration
• AI investment and adoption acceleration programme: reduce bureaucratic burdens and implement risk-absorbing measures to facilitate financing for AI companies, linking AI investment to financial market reforms
• AI infrastructure to power the AI strategy: foster broad inter- and intra-industry collaboration to develop common architectures and specifications for energy management, data centre design, and network connectivity, supported by public-private partnerships
• AI campaign to empower public understanding and skills development: launch an EU-wide educational campaign to build trust in AI and improve skills, focusing on the safety and benefits of EU-made AI products and emphasising practical advantages across various sectors